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WASHINGTON — A month after the Obama administration pledged stepped-up support for Syria’s armed
opposition, the position of President Bashar Assad’s government has improved, U.S. assistance to
the rebels apparently has stalled, and deadly rifts are opening among the forces battling to topple
the Assad regime.

Government forces appear close to forcing rebels from the key city of Homs after a 10-day
offensive, while an al-Qaida-linked rebel group on Thursday assassinated a top commander from the
more-moderate, Western-backed Supreme Military Council, signaling what one British newspaper dubbed
a “civil war within a civil war.”

And that’s only some of the recent setbacks for the Syrian opposition’s two-track struggle
toward improved fighting capabilities and greater political legitimacy.

In the United States, political and logistical snags are preventing the distribution of promised
military aid, while in Turkey, the exiled civilian Syrian Opposition Coalition remains mired in
organizational turmoil.

The biggest reversals, however, came inside Syria, where areas once solidly under rebel control
have begun to slip away. That has cut into the opposition’s ability to provide aid to hungry,
besieged communities — a key part of a strategy to prove it could govern Syria, should Assad
fall.

“The desperation is spreading. It’s becoming an issue in all the areas in which we operate,”
said an official with the Assistance Coordination Unit, the Turkey-based opposition office that’s a
clearinghouse for foreign aid.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivities
surrounding foreign aid, said plans are underway for the United States to release $500,000
immediately to help with emergency food baskets, mainly destined for Homs. The unit estimates that
1.6 million food baskets are needed each month throughout Syria.